Running Bear's July 2022 Coffee Shop

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Afternoon all,

Got the lawn mowed, and then had to get the local daughter started on a concrete block flower bed. We used landscape timbers years ago, and with the upgrade they are doing with new siding, she wanted a different look. She has some odd angles that she needed blocks cut. Showed her how to do it with a chisel. She said it took her longer to do her first block, but it looked fine. She has a total of 4 blocks that need to be cut, so no need to rent a concrete saw.

Getting hot as it is currently 98° going for 103°. Going to try to get to the train room later today or tomorrow. I may get lucky....
 
Afternoon All,

Leg feels better today except when walking down the stairs. Going up is OK. I moved coal hoppers to the mine area. I probably need around 6 more hoppers to support both mines. I placed an order for more KD wheels and couplers. In the train room I weathered signs (traffic and train type) and placed them on the layout.

Thank you for all the photo likes yesterday.

Dave- Thank you for the kind comments.

TomO- Really nice weathering on the car.

Todd- It's never boring is it?

Gary- That sounds cool. Have a great vacation.

Willie- Thank you. Nice scenes. The road material you use works well.

Tom- That's outstanding. I really like that size equipment but the required size and cost made me decide HO instead.

Guy- Thank you. It was one of my first craftsman kits. I should of extended the roof for a overhang. The lower floor is for mine supplies and the upper is for management. You're oil dealership is going to look great when it's all detailed out.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
 
McLeod: not sure about some of drivers down here ... some? How about 60%?

Log and cattle haulers are different. Log truck gets weighed somewhere close to where the logs are picked. I don't think that I have ever seen one out on the US Interstates getting weighed. If it is raining those logs pick up weight, so who knows what the weight is. Most of the time logs are chained on and with the bunk that they are in, so stuff doesn't move much. There equipment also looks like it is about to break and the tires look iffy at best. Have a lot of log truck drivers in Libby, usually there is not a youngster in the mix; all old farts that look to have been hauling for years. That part of the equation makes me feel a little better although when they go by and you see those back tires just a-wobbleing, you always wonder. They are usually shorter than 40Ft so bridge laws do not come into play.

Cattle haulers are a different breed. They have a certain amount of time from picking up critters to getting them to the destination. Talked with one a few years back and he said that the federal government dictates how long cattle can be without water and exercise. Geesh, most are gonna be dinner on your table the next day or so. Have never seen one pulled over and they blast by doing more than the speed limit almost all of the time.

The real interesting part is load securement. Flatbeds always have strapped loads as you can see. Box and/or Refer vans have pallets sitting on the deck with nothing holding them. There are no straps, or chocks .. nothing. If the loader did the job right, all of those pallets will be forced against the previous one and supposidly the whole thing should not move. There are a couple of load-locks holding the last pallet(s) in. That in itself makes no sense as you are not gonna accelerate fast enough to tip them off the back. Side wall of a box van is pretty thin steel or aluminum with vertical bracing every 16" or so to hold the roof up. You can see these type of sides moving in the breeze when they go by. The refer has a somewhat more sturdy box side as it is insulated with metal, insulator, metal and bracing to hold the roof up, so those don't move as much when they go by.

All in all it has been an interesting ride for the last bunch of years. I do have lots of thanks to say to those drivers out there that still do stuff as it is supposed to be done. Quite the brotherhood. The new bunch of drivers think that they are piloting some sort of sports car that can change lanes on a whim, get to 65Mph in 3 to 5 seconds and run down the road all by itself. These types do not have a clue of what can happen to them ( and others too ). Maybe it will get better, maybe not. I will just be glad I will be able to go and hide in my house and train cave in a few months and not worry about any of it anymore.
As an ex truck driver I know what your saying, the "younger generation" of drivers just don't realise their a moving 40ton brick wall travelling at speed, and the damage not only to themselves but to others they can cause, the attitude being "I know what I'm doing because I am an excelled driver" or "It'll never happen to me, I'm that good" That may well be true, but you'll know, as will most others not everyone is that good, and they don't need to driving a big rig to cause a accident.

My instructor taught me one thing when I got my big rig licence, treat everyone else on the road as an idiot and expect them to do something dumb, that way you'll rarely be caught out.

As for loads, when hauliers switched from half sided to curtain sided in Europe, it made no sense to me from a load safety point, a load with a load strap that runs from the load bed to the center of the roof will hold nothing, if the load shifts, its out and gone, half sided trailers were far safer as you had a 2" double sided aluminium side that would usually go up 3/4 of the height of your load, these were held in place by 2"X4" steel braces that also held your roof, then you had wooden planking every 18" that ran across each section to within 2' of your roof.

I admit I didn't always secure my load with straps, but my loads were always properly secured to a pallet, fully loaded there were 28 pallets, each weighing over 1 metric ton, excess space either side, none, excess space front to rear, none, never had a load move my entire career until the last day I drove, and I've never driven a truck since. 06.17am. 10 Mar.1995
 
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All in all it has been an interesting ride for the last bunch of years. I do have lots of thanks to say to those drivers out there that still do stuff as it is supposed to be done. Quite the brotherhood. The new bunch of drivers think that they are piloting some sort of sports car that can change lanes on a whim, get to 65Mph in 3 to 5 seconds and run down the road all by itself. These types do not have a clue of what can happen to them ( and others too ). Maybe it will get better, maybe not. I will just be glad I will be able to go and hide in my house and train cave in a few months and not worry about any of it anymore.
Todd, I retired for the 3rd & last time 1 year and 23 days ago. Every time I went to Truckee over Donner, I saw drivers that made me just shake my head. AND, I still have yet to spend a full day in the train room, too many unfinished projects. But I'm getting close, the deck is done, I have parts coming for the golfcart (for buzzing around the property) and a few concrete projects. Just be sure to burn your medical card.............
 
Todd, I retired for the 3rd & last time 1 year and 23 days ago. Every time I went to Truckee over Donner, I saw drivers that made me just shake my head. AND, I still have yet to spend a full day in the train room, too many unfinished projects. But I'm getting close, the deck is done, I have parts coming for the golfcart (for buzzing around the property) and a few concrete projects. Just be sure to burn your medical card.............
Dave: Ya, we tried the retirement thingie just before the plague. Company made us an offer that we just had to take. I will be starting my 71st orbit come December and I just don't want to work for anybody else anymore.

Donner is great from the top to Truckee - great scenery. The one that gets me is Vail - at 11,000 ft you never know what the weather is gonna give ya. Have seen snow 1st part of August. Our company now forbids any travel over it as there is only one towing company and they are pricey. Some of those idiot drivers traverse that pass too. Have seen more than a few of them sideways just because of a little ice. To much speed and not a clue how to drive on it.

I suppose that I will have to split house stuff with train cave stuff. I guess that I really do not mind as that is ( sorta ) a hobby too. I have a good excuse for summer - too hot to do stuff outside.... and of course, too cold in the winter. Lucky I don't have all the much to do on the normal maintenance stuff, well unless the honeyDo list grows more.

Later
 
Ouch! that gonna take some explaining. It can be caused by having loose wheel studs, as the wheel rotates the stud holes become increasingly larger, even if the wheel studs had been tightened at a later date, the rim has to be replaced or at some point it will decide to take a walk.
Rust streaks on the rim from the lugs and studs are usually a sign of a loose wheel.
 
Rust streaks on the rim from the lugs and studs are usually a sign of a loose wheel.
True, but that's assuming someone knows what those signs could signify and knows what to check for, if they just assume loose nuts and not what that can do to a rim and simply tightens them, then????

I now drive Coach's and Buses, by law every passenger carrying vehicle has to every 28 day's (maximum), to be inspected and checked by a mechanic, in my company it also is signed off by the workshop manager, heaven help the mechanic who doesn't check properly, as the workshop manager is also a director of the company.
 
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Good Morning All!
53F in Libby
79F in Shepardsville, KY

The following was Yesterday before noon.

So, mo proof of NOT staying next to a big truck. Couple hours ago was between Nashville and Knoxville on the 40. Decided that I had 2P and was following a slower truck at about 60Mph. Was gonna pass him and realized my exit was only a few miles away, so I just hung back. Minutes later there was a BIG bang and off comes one of his drive tires. We are talking tire and rim which is what .. 120 to 150 pounds depending. Bounced up in the air and whacks the side of trailer on the big truck passing him. And I mean whack as in it was loud. Tire then spun under the trailer and I am not exactly sure, but think at least the outside trlr tires rolled over it as there was a lot of stuff to watch just then. Now tire is bouncing down the road. All the little cars were going everywhere getting out of the tires, other trucks and each others way. Tire finally took a left and headed for the median. Just as everything settled down, off comes the 2nd tire and rim and is happily bouncing down the road. It also finally took a left into the median to find its mate, but not before all the little cars went wishy-washy again; not quite as bad as they had practice 15 seconds ago. Share this with others please and make sure they know to NEVER hang next to a big truck.

And I forgot. Truck that tire whacked did not slow down one bit. Pretty sure there was a huge dent in the trailer which probably had rubber marks. He is gonna have to do some xplainn to somebody. Also when I went by the broken truck, I could see the studs still sticking outa the hub, which was on the ground. I did not rain lugnuts so no clue what had happened.

later
 
That was on the test for upgrading my CDL in 1992.
I was a mechanic for 6 years before switching over to driving, so the pretrip part of the road test was easy. That's were most have problems.
True, but that's assuming someone knows what those signs could signify and knows what to check for, if they just assume loose nuts and not what that can do to a rim and simply tightens them, then????
Here in the states Department of Transportation (D.O.T) likes clean painted rims, light colors preferred to see the rust streaking on the rims.
 
Got some train time in this evening while a storm blew through. Spent some time cleaning and lubing the loco that came in the recent auction.its a Conrail Quality N scale Kato SD80MAC with a MRC DCC Sound decoder.

I think it's a really good runner, and has pretty solid low speed crawl. It must have been dropped once, there is cosmetic damage on my ne of the front corners, but the pilot still fits fine. I'm happy with it.

Here are a couple videos.

 
Afternoon All,

Leg feels better today except when walking down the stairs. Going up is OK. I moved coal hoppers to the mine area. I probably need around 6 more hoppers to support both mines. I placed an order for more KD wheels and couplers. In the train room I weathered signs (traffic and train type) and placed them on the layout.

Thank you for all the photo likes yesterday.

Dave- Thank you for the kind comments.

TomO- Really nice weathering on the car.

Todd- It's never boring is it?

Gary- That sounds cool. Have a great vacation.

Willie- Thank you. Nice scenes. The road material you use works well.

Tom- That's outstanding. I really like that size equipment but the required size and cost made me decide HO instead.

Guy- Thank you. It was one of my first craftsman kits. I should of extended the roof for a overhang. The lower floor is for mine supplies and the upper is for management. You're oil dealership is going to look great when it's all detailed out.

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I hope everyone has a good night.
Excellent atmosphere, which is something hard to achieve, love it
 
Sorry not posting much atm, busy busy busy, not enough hours in day, tiling of shower is coming along, hopefully if I can squeeze in an hour or two more I will be finished, I wanted to mosaic the thinner lower portion but the sizes are just off to squeeze two lines in each, so plain white will be cut instead to be less noticeable.
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also need to get my automatic watering system in this autumn as been far too much time Hand watering, still results are pleasing
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curgettes zucchini / marrow

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squash

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Sweet corn doing well

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tomatoes sill issues with yellow, not enough water or nutrients, had no time to bring in well rotted manure, but I am munching through this with a vengeance

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polytunnel has meant I am finally getting a. Nice crop of peppers

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cucumbers are happy,I have three types, the crystal lemonsare. but for taste the traditional green are best imo

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several types of beans doing well, I’ll try to keep up with the green pods,but as usual there will be plenty of seeds left over for the next year planting,
leeks small, spinach bolting - but birds very happy with seeds, potatoes, flowered and leaf withered, at present left in ground, a little pest damage, but storage in my experience brings mice and rats out, we have no root cellar but need to design one, garlic has been hit and miss, but self seeded celery is doing well, cucamelon is coming along, lettuce seed failed 3 times in a row, from different packets and types, spring onions doing okay, should have planted more, my hops are going crazy self seeding and total thugs, need relocating, as does the successful lovage - which is excellent with a potatoes or parsnip and carrot mash, strawberries are finished for the year, the furthest bed was hard for me to get to so lost a lot to birds, pease were good just recently added some more for a late harvest thr polytunnel should lengthen the harvesting dates, this winter with my leg so much better hope to get better organised.
do not put squash near potatoes, squash suffers, but if survives once potatoe leaf goes squash starts to catch up, xchecking this out to see if this is worth doing on purpose.
garlic next to strawberrie, each. Recommended by some not successful garlic lost out to strawberries, need their own bed
three sisters squash beans sweet corn is a roaring success
birds are helping eat the excess squash, chickens love the seeds the most,but rest is gone by End of day
figs leafing well not much good for fruit
lcky 2/3 are in pots so can cone out of polytunnel in summer and return later,
I really need to get my seeds for winter started, but am running around on various fronts, still if leg continues improving it should relief pressure on the other leg and hip that had taken the pressure, still not decided about the goats future, a second incident could prove stupid for the benefit,we no loereant to ml them which means breeding them for meat or just keeping as pets,but neither of us are comfortable going in with them,feeding and watering is over the fence in the main, goats are happy enough, but hooves not being tidied as often as they should be, they may yet end up in the freezer, although 3 nice girls, they are well cared for organic meat at the end of the day with world events we are keeping our options open, so the girls are still in good situation, plenty of food,water,space,and have each other for company, only baa aaa us when we are late with dry food. baby birds are being attacked by rats and magpies,so I am scooping them up into t rabbit hutches, fresh sawdust,fresh water and food, they need enough water to drink and consume dry food, but not too much they can drown themselves or soak their bedding and get cold - yes seriously if bedding too wet then birds get cold, so regular change or bedding until they get proper feathers, then I can look to making them a small compound,2 of the mums sit by them - giving me the dirty eye for stealing their babies, but my success rate of survival is far higher than theirs and mums do not like being in small rabbit hutches and will stamp around killing babies so not an option, ho hum,
 
Good Early Morning!

Curt - Night shift at the mine looks very realistic. Well done, on that!

Gary - Thank you for sharing those holiday photos. The caboose looks like a great place to camp out in. That's a nice wide beach over there. Alberta don't have much for beaches.

Jaz avalley - Better to be busy than a chair potato with you're nose planted in a computer screen all day. That's a very decent garden you have going there. Lotsa gourdes. Nice work on the shower stall.

It was a beautiful day yesterday; not to hot. So I spent quite a-bit of time in the garden trying to snap bird photos. Didn't have a whole lot of luck with the birds; they weren't co-operating.
The wife has a couple of 12v bird bath pumps out there, where the birds like to go for water.

At the modelling desk, I scratched up a loading dock for the dealership warehouse. Tried to weather it up to look oily dirty. The planks are balsa, scale 2x12, and the surround is spruce, scale 2x10. It's not perfect, but, it will serve.
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As soon as I'm done with my coffee, I'll mount the stairs leading up to the platform. Then, clearcoat it with Vallejo acrylic matt.

I was up at 3:00am. Don't know why, but, I'm expecting a good day today with lot's getting done. So, I intend to get to it!
Have a great day!
 


Good morning. It's sunny and 69.
Yesterday, I went to my favorite toy store (Best Buy), and discovered they now charge for shopping bags. I asked the cashier if there was an additional surcharge for unmarked bags, so we could get our purchases in the house without our spouses seeing we'd bought more electronics. It turned into something of a "joke grenade", since it took about 5 seconds before she figured out what I'd asked. After she got done giggling, she did look, and the only "unbranded" bags she had were clear plastic, so we decided the answer was "no".
 
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